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South Korea
AsiaEast Asia

64 South Korean scam suspects repatriated from Cambodia, hundreds more remain

The group includes both voluntary workers and people forced into Cambodia’s ‘pig butchering’ crypto fraud networks

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Police officers escort repatriated South Koreans who were detained by authorities in Cambodia over alleged cyberscam operations upon their arrival at Incheon International Airport on Saturday. Photo: Yonhap/AFP
Agence France-Presse
Sixty-four South Koreans who had been detained in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyberscam operations returned home on Saturday and were under arrest, police said.
South Korea had sent a team to Cambodia on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.

“A total of 64 nationals just arrived at Incheon International Airport on a chartered flight,” a police official said.

South Korean police escort detainees at Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, early on Saturday morning. Photo: Agence Kampuchea Presse/EPA
South Korean police escort detainees at Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, early on Saturday morning. Photo: Agence Kampuchea Presse/EPA

Seoul had said around 60 South Koreans had been detained by authorities in Cambodia over the alleged crimes and vowed to bring them home.

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The repatriation follows a public outcry in South Korea over the torture and killing of a Korean college student in Cambodia this year, reportedly by a crime ring.

The suspects were arrested on board the chartered flight shortly after boarding, the official said.

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All 64 had been taken into custody as criminal suspects upon arrival at Incheon airport and would be transferred to the police stations with jurisdiction over their respective cases, the official said.

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